sanctuary

Monday, March 17, 2014

Will there be
titanium-skinned creatures with oversized heads and bulging eyes
running planet Earth in 500 years? Only Steven Spielberg knows for
certain. I think the “leash” over the approximately next 50 to
100 years will be climate, religion and
economics. What we do or don't do in these areas
simultaneously will have a bearing on who or what will be our
progeny.

Climate
scientists, using such methods as geological analysis, ice cores,
fossil remains and historical records, have determined that CO2
levels in the atmosphere remained between 180 and 300 parts per
million (ppm) for some half-a-million years, but in recent centuries
(the start of the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th
century) CO2 levels rose to at least 380 ppm. The greenhouse effect
is not an obscure hypothesis recently put forward.

The Roman
philosopher Seneca said that, “Religion is regarded by the common
people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.”
Artifacts of one kind or another at burial sites go back to at least
70,000 years ago. It hardly seems a mystery as to why we have
religion. Among other things, religion binds groups, helps take the
fear of death away, sanctions the killing of other groups and
provides the “answers.” Today there are some 10,000 different
religions all possessing the Truth. Religion at this point in
time is a genuine obstacle to confronting a potential planetary
disaster.

Last but not
least is the economic system that entwines the entire planet. It's
little more than a perpetual ponzi scheme, regardless of the
“wonders” it may have helped produce—for some—in the past.
Most important, it's unsustainable. It deserves to be tossed into the
ashcan of history along with mercantilism and the “divine right”
of kings.

Immortality and the Kurzwellian
phantasmagoria

Superheroes
are popular and
ubiquitous across the globe and not
just among children. Immortality, master-of-the-universe, infinite
choices, exceptionalism, privilege, entitlement and certainly
narcissism all beckon to even the most rational among us. Ca
plus changes, ca plus la meme chose.

Ray Kurzwell, inventor and “technical” futurist, who now works
for Google, believes that by 2045 machine intelligence will surpass
human intelligence in all aspects, which he refers to as the
“singularity.” For Kurzwell, human immortality is only a few
blocks away.

Well,
2045 seems a bit optimistic, or pessimistic, depending on your point
of view. Would Aunt and Uncle Sahelanthropus,
whom we haven't seen in some 7 million years, still love us? Of
course, many of these superhero dreams violate the known laws of
physics. Gravity can be inconvenient, mass increases faster than the
fundamental strength of our bones and we can't walk through walls
even though the atom is mostly empty space. But … technology
springs eternal, and Ray Kurzwell thinks he'll become immortal; after
all, he demands to become a system.

Believing what
we believe

Why
do we do what we do?One
of the most interesting new subject areas at the present time and
yes,it's
controversial, is the field of Genopolitics.
Political beliefs may have a genetic component. Feelings about
contraception, gay marriage, capital punishment, animal rights,
climate change, etc are personality traits that could be ancient and
way older than humans.

If the evolution of the human brain was driven by a need for more
complex social cognition, then might the understanding of human
biology in a “sociopolitical” context be of paramount importance,
perhaps for our very survival?

The amygdala in our very old limbic brain is connected to the
cingulate cortex, an area critical to self awareness. It is the
cingulate cortex that “thinks” about the responses of the
amygdala—threat, not a threat, your imagination and so forth.

What do we think we know now? Some research has shown that people
with larger emotional responses to threats are more likely to have
right-wing opinions. Oxytocin is released in sex and orgasm and
believed by many neuroscientists to smother the amygdala responses,
which may lead to increased generosity, trust, etc. Lower serotonin
levels in the brain have been associated with criminality and
anxiety. People with a less active MAO allele “tend” to be more
impulsive and aggressive. No, there are no specific genes for
criminality, but personality traits are heritable.

In a 1980s sexual preference study conducted by David Buss, professor
of psychology at the University of Texas, it was determined that the
top two qualities in a male for both sexes were kindness and
intelligence, outweighing such things as money and physical
appearance. Geoffrey Miller of the University of New Mexico has
suggested that our ancestors who were more intelligent and kinder
attracted a higher quality mate thus creating our success.

Regardless
of what Genopolitics ultimately uncovers, a better understanding of
human behavior and how we make decisions is, it seems to me, not
merely nice to know but absolutely critical if we want to get beyond
the “reptilian” mindset and consider a future beyond something
like the unrelenting nightmare of Cormac McCarthy's The
Road.

Back to a
future

Every part of the planet has warmed except for Antarctica and at this
point in time it may have more to do with circulating winds and the
hole in the ozone layer. The International Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) predicts a minimum temperature rise of 1.8 degrees Centigrade
by 2100. Some 120,000 years ago when it was 1 to 2 degrees warmer,
sea levels were 5 to 8 meters higher. Three million years ago when
the temperature was 2 to 3 degrees C higher, the sea levels were 25
meters higher.

It's called the tipping point and is a term that has
been used in reference to climate change. Is there a point where the
change is irreversible? Climate scientists have spoken about such
things as a global temperature rise of 2 degrees C and CO2 levels
going over 400 ppm. We have now reached CO2 levels of 400 ppm. IPCC
estimates have been revised, perhaps because of the sudden collapse
of ice sheets and a better understanding of “feedback loops,”
which can speed up the process. Several decades of global warming are
already in the pipeline. Time, where is it when we need it?

Some of us might recall friends and acquaintances “dropping acid”
(LSD) some years ago and having spiritual experiences and “being
one” with the universe. We know now there are hormonal and
biochemical factors at work in the brain during many of those
religious moments, resulting in such things as increases in dopamine
levels and serotonin being released. “Spiritual” experiences can
change brain activity. A book worth reading on this subject is by
D.F. Swaab, a physician and neurobiologist, entitled We Are Our
Brains: A Neurobiography of the Brain, From the Womb to Alzheimer's

To believe that some supernatural entity gave us the planet and
dominion over all life on it is both irrational and narcissistic to
the extreme, but also more understandable today. We're also learning
that extreme religiosity may be associated with such illnesses as
schizophrenia, dementia and obsessive-compulsive behavior.

Difficult as it might be, we have to move beyond the supernatural and
magic. Even more important is finally realizing this planet is all we
have--but--real spirituality is all around us. Turn off your
I-Pad and move your head. You can even “friend” biodiversity.

Adams Smith, often cited as the father of modern capitalism, once
said of the capitalists, “It comes from an order of men, whose
interest is never exactly the same with that of the public...”
What is striking today among the governments of the world is the
apparent obtuseness, be they the corrupt autocrats in Beijing and
Moscow, the feckless and uninformed politicians in Washington or many
among the rising developing nations who claim it's “everyone else”
who bears the responsibility. Our ancient short-term thinking is
alive and well … and dangerous.

Mounting scarcities, growing ecological disequilibrium, expanding
population, economic stagnation, increasing disparities
between rich and poor, individual selfishness (including nation
selfishness), human redundancy, unproven economic myths like the
market's “invisible hand” are more than likely to lead to greater
forms of coercion across the globe, and the amount of coercion can be
an approximate measure of the system's validity. Once the system is
deemed illegitimate, another tipping point has begun, this time
rippling across the planet.

It is very much a matter of enlarging the global tribe
and accepting the idea unequivocally of reciprocal obligation.

Summary

Gerald Crabtree, a Stanford University geneticist, believes our
intelligence may have peaked some 2,000 years ago. It's been pretty
much downhill ever since. Really?

Will the last remaining clan of Homo sapiens end up in a cave on
Gibraltar squinting at the shadows of their cousins the Neandertals?
Does it matter? After all, it's estimated that about 100,000 species
are going extinct each year. What's one more, especially the most
destructive predator the planet has known. Down deep, we know we're
here “by the luck of the draw.”

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About Me

"We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes--something known only to her and to the mountains." (Aldo Leopold, "Thinking Like a Mountain")
"We are the rich. We own America. We got it, God knows how, but we intend to keep it." (Frederick Townsend Martin, 19th century plutocrat)